Production/release timeline
Chronology (Mostly from Brown’s book with some updates) There were a couple of times that I couldn’t figure out what dates he was talking about… Locations in parenthesis are where the scenes were shot though Brown doesn't specifically mention them. Note that many locations are not accounted for. See also Call Sheets.) *** Early 1972 Shaffer, Snell, Lee decided to find a new project after being involved with David Pinner’s Ritual Script ready July Snell starts at British Lion showreel produced. (orchards, pregnant women, phallic topiary) Giovanni brought on board Late summer Ok’d by studio to proceed August 31 - Flannery first contacted by Hardy September Early September - Flannery returns to Shepperton to plan out the production, Casting is done, Technical crew assembled 4 - Flannery met with Hardy 5 - Flannery signed contract 6 - location scouting begins (Hardy, Flannery and Ted Morley - production manager), took 6 weeks (CF) Originally, the plan was to shoot further north using Skye and the Higlands but it was getting late in the year. 7 - the three go to St Ninian’s cave, spend the night at Lochinch castle 9 - visit Kircudbright 10 - look for a good beach 27 - Stuart Hopps shows the boys how to do the May Pole dance (and on 10/5) 30 - Galloway Gazette announces casting call October 1 - 3 - Jake Wright goes to Dumfries and Galloway 3 - Stranraer Council approves filming. 4 - Director and “principal” actors arrive in Galloway. Hardy, Lee and Woodward visit Culzean Castle. 5 - Stuart Hopps shows the boys how to do the May Pole dance (and on 9/27) 8 - construction of stones begins (took 6 days - 10/14) 9 - Shooting begins in Plockton with the harbor master scenes and the inspection of the ship (Called the schooner Summerisle) 10 - continues with the above scenes. 11 - Howie’s house searching filmed 12 - day off 13 - Culzean shoot starts, arriving at Holly Grimmond’s and returning to Green Man were shot (3 scenes showing his journey there and back which include the Boobrie Bird and scene with topiary NOT filmed.) Shots of Lee and Woodward walking (not the apple dialogue) and Howie’s arrival by pony and trap. Dining room scene shot. Brown - search upstairs at May Morrison’s house shot. 14 - auditions for local cast, King St. (Douglas House). Main crew rested while Logan Gardens was prepared. Peter Allwork 2nd unit crew shooting aerials of Scottish Highlands used for credits. Shaffer rewrite of script. Rehearsals at Drummore school. 12 girls with Stuart Hopps and Paul Giovanni. Trees sent to Logan garden too! (Fintan) 15 - Logan Gardens: The “We carry death…” baby was supposed to be floating down a dyke but due to a drought, pumps had to be brought in. This scene was shot but not used. (Doesn't appear in Shaffer script.) Apple dialogue scene shot. Construction of the wicker man starts in Burrowhead. Not sure that the carrying doll scene was shot on this date... if at all. The raunchy snail scene was shot on this day... (Fintan) 16-18 - Lochinch: Howie’s cycling scenes to and from Mrs Grimmonds cut, indoor castle scenes shot 17 - Lord Summerisle with Miss Rose and Howie brings hare… (Lochinch, night) 18 - Courtyard before the parade. Procession (Lochinch). Shaffer rewrite of script. 19 - (Lochinch) Howie rides past the stones during fire dance, long distance shots from castle, then ‘chop chop’scene. At beach near St Ninians' cave: offering the goddess of the sea and Howie sees Rowan. first unit goes to Stranaer: close-ups of Howie being rowed to and from seaplane (not used but have a pic of this). encounter with McTaggert, nighttime police car ride (shot indoors, not at night unless they mean the exterior shots...),postman bicycling scene. Kirkcudbright - mainland prostitute scene (shot that night). Peter Allwork shot scenes of seaplane taking off and landing at nearby Loch Ryan. Shaffer rewrite of script. 20 - Closing the mainland pub scene (Kirkcudbright) 21 - Rest day except for Lee, Rowan and Lesley Mackie and some extras. Harvest festival pics and darkroom pics shot - Harvest Festival shots were taken at Anwoth. It snowed... (See Kathryn Soriani's experience with this.) 22 - Anwoth: Shaffer appears on set, (cast and crew in Plockton home movies of bar footage shot then!), Shaffer comforts Woodward… (Snowed?) The filming was actually at Lochinch in the Great Hall on this day... not Anworth (Fintan) 24 - Entire cast except for Myrtle and Daisy at Burrowhead for 3 day shoot. 5 scenes. 142 - 147 Still processing today and filming at the stones. The Burrowhead filming starts on Wednesday which is day 15 of the shoot... (Fintan) 25 - scene from when Rowan and Howie come out of cave to end, studio men (American bond co?) try to wrap the film, burn #1 in hero man. 26 - Burn #2 close-ups in shorter man. head falling over shot. Shaffer rewrite of script. 27? - Pick-up shots for procession to the beach, Woodward not included (A “double” was Punch) (near St Ninian's cave) It rained nearly all day on Friday October 27th so they filmed at the library in Whithorn. There could be no filming the next day {on Saturday} because that was everyone's day off... (Fintan) 28 - Rest day for cast and crew 29 - Beach shots (near St Ninian's cave) 30 - Howie meets “librarian” scene and reading in library (Whithorn) Filming continued on Burrowhead on October 30th not in the library. (Fintan) 31 - Anwoth: schoolhouse, ruined church, grave keeper and nighttime grave shots. (Snowed?) Exterior shooting of the maypole dance and the chat between Howie and Miss Rose. No graveyard sequences shot on Halloween! (Fintan) November Britt Ekland discovers she is pregnant. 1 - Gatehouse of Fleet: chemists, exterior shots of Ash and Willow and Lord Summerisle (Whithorn) 2 - Exteriors and interiors of May Morrison’s (Kirkcudbright), Lord Summerisle’s Whitman speech (Whithorn) Int and ext school and ext churchyard and then to the old church. (Fintan) 3 - Willow’s dance filmed (Whithorn), butcher and fishmonger scenes (after Willow’s dance so it wasn’t evening?) (Whithorn?) 4 - Rest day (5 & 6) interiors of May Morrison’s? 5 - Anwoth: Miss Rose, schoolgirls and gravekeeper - retakes! (Newton Stewart darkroom on standby) 6 - Shaffer rewrite of script. 7 - Shaffer rewrite of script. 7 - 10 - Creetown: Green Man interior sequences, bakery interior shot. Filming the burning of the wicker man at Burrow Head (Fintan) 12 - Gatehouse of Fleet: Howie and Willow outside pub, Howie and Gillie (shot but deleted), nighttime shots of Green Man exterior. 13 — Lord Summerisle speech history of island speech shot in Threave but deleted (crew spent 4 days dressing set) 15 - Interiors of Howies room (Whithorn) Ellengowan hotel and Anworth church graveyard (Fintan) 17 - Greyfriars church interior (Kirkcudbright) 18 - Rest day, bridge scene actor “signed up” in Kirkcudbright 19 - Kirkcubright: Bridge scene shot called off. Howie pursues hobby horse, funeral parlor, police station, 24 - Wrap (40 days, 40 nights). Two extra days used for various cover shots. Party at the Cally Hotel (Cally Palace?) Brown later says mainland pub and prostitute scenes were shot between 10/12 and 24… (pg 427) and were definitely in Steam Packet Inn in Kirkcudbright (owner paid, etc) Filming finished at 4pm on Saturday November 25th Most of the stars had already left in the previous days. Shooting had over run by 4 days.... Sadly the shoot for The Wicker Man didn't last a biblical "40 days and 40 nights". The shoot was estimated to be a very tight 40 days of filming but ran over by 4 extra days, so today was the second last day of filming i.e. day 43 of 44. (Fintan) 25 - cast and crew return to London (says 10/25 in book…) Orgy and cave sequences shot later, (Wookey Hole, England) 1973 The official soundtrack album, recorded, but not released, in 1973. (Summerisle Films, ℗1973, All selections © 1973 British Lion Music Ltd.) January Deely and Spikings join British Lion as previous management is bought out by the banker J H Vavasseur. February18 Editing/post production started at Shepperton. (Took 3 months) Ernie Shepherd totals the cost: 448, 300 pounds, not including editing. March (end of month) Snell told he would be replaced. "Hardy, Snell, everyone connected with the film's production, were locked out from the studio." April 16 An internal memo from Film Finances’ accountant Richard Soames to their Managing Director Bernard Smith of 16 April 1973 shows an invoice had been presented from Shepperton Studios (no. 20177) for ‘re-editing after editing completed’ to the tune of £620 (Boyd-Perkins was on a rate of £160 per day) - (Justin Smith, Calculated Risks: Film Finances and British Independents in the 1970s) (April 28, Saturday, day 1 of the movie. (Director's cut)) (April 29, Sunday, day 2 of the movie) (April 30, Monday, day 3 of the movie) (May Day, Tuesday, day 4 of the movie) May 10–25 WM statue (a spare one leftover) put up at Cannes Film Festival, on the Croisette. Film had entered the Marché (non-competitive) section. British Lion rep there handing out brochures. (See postcard.) Corman sees the statue and asks to see the movie when it is done… (He was told it was incomplete). He gets a 16 mm copy later… (when?) (Stuart Byron says 2 102 minute versions were sent to him. Only one was returned later to Abraxis.) "From its screenings at Cannes, the film was sold to a number of foreign territories." sometime after this: Eric Boyd-Perkins cuts it down overnight using the list of changes Corman wanted, taking 15 minutes out, leaving us with the “theatrical version.” (Trailer has an excerpt of Dr Ewan’s speech and “far-out” Giovanni music that wasn’t in Hardy’s cut… http://youtu.be/21gb49H-Uo4) August Snell joins the Stigwood Organization September Cutting and Continuity script published, 192 pages October Don't Look Now is a big success. November Film still not released. Lee sees the edited 102 minute version, for the first time. Late 1973 Released but had X rating. (When would it have gone on tv?) Trade, press and test screenings. November Lee sees 102 minute version "in a private cinema in the basement of British Lion." Broadwick House, Broadwick St, London. December Test screenings at Metropole Cinema in Victoria, London. December 3 trade screening December 6 Opens there as a double bill with Don't Look Now on Thursday, December 6. (Don't Look Now played for about a week or two without being a double bill right before this at the Leicester Square Theater. (Time Out, Nov 30 - Dec 6, 1973) Mid December Gets bad reviews. Lee calls up film critics he knew and offers to pay for their seats to get them to review it. December 14 (released?) Financial Times review December 15 Financial Times and CinemaTV Today (a trade periodical) reviews December 16 Time Out, London Times, Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times reviews December 23 Sunday Times? Sunday Telegraph? review December 28 Daily Telegraph review 1974 Early 1974 - Screened for US distributors. January Monthly Film Bulletin review. National General Pictures goes bankrupt. Warner Brothers takes over. 9 - Edinburgh Evening News review 13 - A ”premiere” shown at the Regal Cinema, Stranraer and the Cinema, Newton Stewart. 19 - plays at the Birmingham Odeon Queensway Cinema at 11.30pm. Also the Curzon Cinema. 21 - Official opening at the Odeon Haymarket, London, as double bill with Don’t Look Now. (a poster for the run.) 26 Odeon Queensway Cinema February 2 - Odeon Queensway Cinema 9 - Odeon Queensway Cinema 15 - Coventry 20 - Odeon Queensway Cinema 21 - Coventry 22 - Coventry 23 - Odeon Queensway Cinema 25 - Coventry Odeon 26 - Coventry 28 Coventry London Evening News review Movie was pretty much done showing in theaters. (Tamworth UK ticket stub.) April 2 - Coventry 4 - Odeon Queensway Cinema, Coventry 5 - Odeon Queensway Cinema, Coventry 6 - Odeon Queensway Cinema, Coventry 7 - Odeon Queensway Cinema, Coventry 8 - Odeon Queensway Cinema, Coventry 9 - Odeon Queensway Cinema, Coventry 11 - Odeon Queensway Cinema 14 - Odeon Queensway Cinema 15 - Odeon Queensway Cinema 30 - Grand Prix winner at the third Paris International Science-Fiction and Fantasy Film Festival aka Grand Prize: 3rd Festival of Fantastic Films, Paris, 1974 May 3 - preview in Burbank, CA. (Allan Howard, Hollywood Reporter) 4 - Stockland Green?, Odeon Queensway Cinema, Odeon Sutton Coldfield - Birmingham 6 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield 7 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield 8 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield 9 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield 10 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield 11 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield 13 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield 14 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield 15 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield 16 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield 17 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield 18 - Odeon Sutton Coldfield Started playing in US. Over in a few weeks. (San Diego and Atlanta) Warner Brothers struck 24 prints of the 86 min version. 15 - First review in the US in Variety. A good review. (97 minute time is erroneous.) Summer Film "shelved" by Warner Brothers. 1975 Giovanni tries to check for his royalties and gets nowhere. (See Cinefantastique.) 1976 Spring Hardy phones around to try to find out what has happened to his film. Abraxas wins bid to distribute it from Beachhead. (Abraxas had been in business for ~2&1/2 years by then.) (8/26/76 story in The Evening Independent about Stirling Smith being bitten by rat in Orpheum Theater!) September 7 - John Simon and Sterling Smith screen the film (theatrical version, 86 min) at the Robert E Lee Theater, New Orleans, just for themselves. (Hoping to distribute it.) Ron Weinberg comes back to New Orleans and joins Abraxas. Had tentative deal from Beachhead. Buddy Brimberg joins at the same time. 1977 Abraxas (John Simon and Stirling Smith) get the rights from Beachhead Properties and National General. Abraxas was left with only the 25 (short) prints, struck originally by National General, to work with. Hardy informs them a 102 minute version exists somewhere. Weinberg calls Corman…`They are attempting now to make a third generation negative from the Corman print, which was nearly virgin having been run only a few times, and re-cut the missing sections back into the film. Hardy informs them a 102 minute version exists somewhere. April Abraxas screens film for NY theater owners. "The only national exposure THE WICKER MAN has received thus far is a small bit in the National Enquirer in the April 5, 1977, edition reporting how Rod Stewart offered a six-figure sum to buy the "nudie movie" and destroy it, keeping girlfriend Britt Ekland's nude scenes from reaching American audiences." July NYC Police contact Hardy thinking the Son of Sam murderer is related to a Wicker something…. October 28 - Cinefantastique issue comes out coincidentally with 86 minute version opening at the Sena Mall (Metaire, suburban New Orleans, a Gulf States Distributing Co. theater) for two week booking which gets cancelled. (Stewart Byron says it did show. Christopher Lee is slated to be there.) Film starts appearing at the University Cinema in Baton Rouge and the Meadowbrook Cinema 6 in Jackson, MS. In Jackson, clergy saw the film. Christopher Lee and Robin Hardy accompanied it. November Something Wicker This Way Comes by Stuart Byron in Film Comment magazine (vol.13 no.6) 17 - Opens in Baton Rouge, LA. 19 - Christopher Lee and Stirling Smith appear at the Sena Mall in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb to promote another movie. Lee mentions TWM several times but the movie isn's shown. (Challenger fanzine #19) December 12 - Abraxas print plays in New Orleans. 1978 March Sterling Smith writes to FBI about (tv) distribution, which would put the movie on tv before it got into theaters. "Weinberg “struggling to take film under his sole control.” Weinberg and Charest form Summerisle Films to sub-lease the movie from Abraxas. (Some time before this, Weinberg gave tv rights to Group IV who now controlled the negative and the 102 minute version.) Also sub-leased to Hemisphere Pictures which played the movie before the New Orleans premiere, which got cancelled." March/April Back Talk, Stuart Byron, Film Comment, Vol. 14, No. 2 May 102 minute version premieres at Telluride (CO) Film Festival under the distribution of Summerisle Corporation (Ron Weinberg and Micheline Charest). Novel comes out end of November slated to open in San Francisco. Craig Miller brought in, designed posters, badges, press kit Nov 17 Guyana mass suicide so opening was postponed. Sometime, date unclear: 102 minute print taken to LA (!! Press release says it was NYC!!) 1979 Paperback of novel comes out. January 6 - Opens in San Francisco’s Castro theater, delayed from 10/78 planned opening. 96 min version, not 102. No mainland scenes. Post premiere party at Getty home. Then played at Lumiere where it ran for 4 months. (April) February Opens in Oregon. Oregonian review by Ted Mahar. 15 - The Hollywood Reporter vol.255 no.22, pp.3, 27 (USA) note, 20 - The Hollywood Reporter vol.255 no.24, review 24 - Best Screenplay and Best Picture at American Science Fiction Awards (6th Saturn Awards) (= Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, LA, CA.) The ceremony was held on February 24. Wins Best Horror Film Release 1978. Also nominated for best actor (CL), director, writing and music. EMI finds out about this later. Sometime between February and May: Churchill Films takes posession of videotape masters and original long-version print, neither is ever seen again. March Seattle and in 7 theaters in Los Angeles. (Leamle Chain), Seattle (Suky Hutton review), U of Washington Daily (another?), Wins “Best Screenplay and Best Picture at the American Science Fiction Awards” 3/17 possibly at the Westland Twin I or II (10754 Pico) and The Oriental (7425 Sunset BL) in LA, CA May San Diego Weinberg goes to NYC to negotiate with United Film Distribution Company, a division of United Artists, about releasing the movie nationally. Before June Churchill Films takes possession of videotape masters and original 102 min film print which they then lose… Simon gets brief access and gets VHS release of 102 min cut on Media Home Entertainment. June John Alan Simon sues Weinberg for failing to make payments and wins (6/21/79) Summerisle Films was no more. They handed back everything to Abraxas. John Simon takes over. After this, Abraxas opens film on the East Coast.. Gets 102 minute version on Media Home Entertainment VHS. November Shaffer writes a sequel. 1980 March 26 - Theatrical version opens in NYC theaters. (Brings in $22,500 during its first week.) Slightly after that it goes on WOR TV, NYC (by Group IV). Variety reports second highest gross in Manhattan. NYC transit strike hurts the remaining two weeks of showings. Janet Maslin NYT review sometime around then. March 28 April 3 - The Hollywood Reporter vol.261 no.9, pp.1, 4. note 4 - review in Columbia University newspaper See ad. 8 - Currently playing at the Cinema V Paramount Theater in NYC (Max J Rosenberg’s Dynamite Entertainment re-release). (Plans are to open it in Orson Welles Cinema, Cambridge (Boston), Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.) Transit strike affects week 2 and 3. May Film is playing in America, Lee promoting it. Hardy had done that the previous year. At some point: John Simon gives up and moves to LA. Weinberg and Charest move to Montreal. Stirling Smith died of a heart attack, 1980? 1981 May First home video release in Britain. 1987 February 25 - illustrated article (The Wicker Man - mystery solved by Janice Turner) in Time Out no.862, p.32 (UK) illustrated interview with Robin Hardy 1988 Shaffer starts work on a sequel. 1993 US cable tv premiere (Home Media Entertainment, Director's cut) 1998 December Reunion at Ellangowan Hotel for BBC Scotland documentary (Ex-s) 1990s WM #1 legs burned in bonfire 1998 Falkirk - showing of :45 of the Plockton home movie footage. (See 2nd to last post in this thread.) December - Reunion at the Ellangowan. Edward Woodward, Allan Brown, Gail Ashurst, Stuart Bolton and at least one woman who was in the film (the woman who we see looking out of the window as Howie first walks into town) attend. 1999 January 15-17 "First ever Wicker Man convention"(?) at the Ellangowan Hotel. 6 attend including Gail Ashurst, Stuart Bolton (who published and edited the Wicker Man fan magazine Nuada) and David Lally of the Wicker Man Appreciation Society. Run entirely by fans. Brown and Shaffer pose in front of WM #2 stumps (see andy footage too) 2000 May 3 - National Film Theatre (NFT), London hosts screening and talk in co-ordination with Allan Brown's book release. Quentin Cooper, film critic, Anthony Shaffer, Christopher Lee, Ingrid Pitt, Seamus Flannery, Allan Brown and Steve Pemberton of the League of Gentlemen appear. Plockton home movie footage shown. It included the girls removing their masks and pub scenes. (Handouts 1, 2, 3 4, a short glimpse of the event appears in The Wicker Man Enigma.) 2006 Legs disappear from WM #2. 2009 Ian Cutler goes back to Scotland to meet up with Robin Hardy, Ingrid Pitt and Alan Cumming for BBC4. (Autumn airing) Scotland On Screen. 2015 October - 4:26 of Plockton home movie footage of Howie and the girls taking their masks off uploaded to YouTube.